Monday, December 27, 2010

The International Committee against Executions is calling for a week of demonstrations, from December 27, 2010 to January 3, 2011, to protest against the execution sentence of Habibollah Latifi, and the arrest of his family members and all those arrested in the past few days in Sanandaj, Iran. We call on all honorable Iranian people and people all over the world: all those who believe in unconditional freedom of speech and belief; all those who believe in freedom for all political prisoners; all those who want commutation of Habib's execution sentence and freedom of his family members and other Sanandaj arrestees; and all those who protest against the Islamic Republic's crimes, executions, and suppression; to protest with all of your power in Sanandaj, in Kurdistan, in Iran, and all over the world against these atrocities committed by the Islamic Republic of Iran against the people of Iran.

Here is what you can do: Come out and demonstrate in different countries, sign petitions, send protest letters [for example, to your governmental representatives or the UN], gather in front of Sanandaj prison where they are holding Habibollah Latifi, write graffiti in the cities of Kurdistan and other cities of Iran, go on the rooftops at nighttime and shout, "FREE POLITICAL PRISONERS!", and by all other possible means.

Habib's execution sentence should be overturned. Habib, his family members, and all Sanandaj arrestees should be freed immediately and unconditionally. All execution sentences should be cancelled, and all political prisoners should be freed immediately and unconditionally.

The week of protest
December 27, 2010 to January 3, 2011

* In protest against the sentence of execution of Habib Latifi
* For freedom of his family and all other arrestees in the city of Sanandaj
* For the release of all political prisoners
* For abolishment of capital punishment in Iran
* and in protest to the outragous execution of Ali Saremi and Ali Akbar Siadat who were executed by the Islamic murderers on December 28, 2010.

The demonstrations below have been organised by political activists and organisations. The International Committee Against Execution (ICAE) calls upon all people to participate in these actions.

List of Demonstrations
Confirmed cities as of 27 December 2010

AUSTRIA
Vienna: Tuesday December 28 – 4PM in front of the IRI embassy

BELGIUM
Brussels: Tuesday December 28 – 4PM in front of the IRI embassy

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Once again, the judicial murder apparatus of the Islamic Republic is preparing to stone a woman and a man to death.

According to the news disseminated by HRANA, Sarieh (Sarimeh) Ebaadi, 31 years old and mother of two, and Vali (Bou-Ali) Jaanfeshaani, 35 years old and father of one, are about to be stoned to death in Orumiya. The two have been imprisoned for the past two years, and have been handed down stoning sentences by the judiciary system on three different occasions.

Sarieh (Sarimeh) Ebaadi and Vali (Bou-Ali) Jaanfeshaani were arrested two years ago, were charged with adultery, and in less than 3 months, the Ordinary Court of Orumiya (Branch 3 of Western Azerbaijan court) handed down their stoning sentences. This sentence was then confirmed on January 6, 2010 by branch 12 of the Review Court of Western Azerbaijan. On August 28, 2010, the Supreme Court first upheld the verdict, but later found the case not to be based on good law and referred the judicial decision to another branch in Orumiya court. This branch upheld the stoning sentence on December 12, 2010. This inhumane, hideous sentence has been handed down despite the fact that the accused were prevented from choosing their lawyer and had not been given a chance to defend themselves in any part of the legal procedure.

The vast and intensive protests of people and general opinion across the world against Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani’s stoning sentence, and against stoning in general, had forced the Islamic Republic to deny [the existence of] these sentences and their implementation, but the Islamic Republic depends on these crimes for its survival.

A regime that stones, that imprisons pregnant women and sentences them to stoning, execution, lashes and torture, should not be recognized by anyone, anywhere [as a legitimate government]. Officials of such a regime should not have a place in international organizations. They should instead be prosecuted and punished for 32 years of murder, torture, execution, stoning and lashing, for crimes against humanity.

The International Committees against Stoning and Execution call on all organizations, institutions, mass media and honourable, humanitarian people of the world to decisively protest against these heinous crimes of the Islamic Republic, and show the Islamic Republic that these crimes outrage the people of the world and will bring about their vast protests.

International Committee against Stoning
International Committee against Execution

Saturday, December 25, 2010

A large and growing number of political prisoners in Iran face a deadly form of torture under the Islamic Republic regime: the withholding of medical treatment for serious health conditions. The International Committee against Execution calls for international pressure be exerted to pressure the Islamic Republic to release all political prisoners and allow an international delegation to assess the conditions in Iran’s prisons.

Reza Sharifi Bookani is emblematic of this burgeoning crisis. Bookani is a political prisoner in Iran who is under sentence of death as a result of his efforts to work towards human rights in Iran. In addition to being subjected to severe physical and psychological torture, the Islamic Republic is, as a form of torture, intentionally refusing to treat his severe respiratory problems.

On December 22, 2010, Bookani transmitted a message from prison to the outside world:

“Today, Wednesday, I informed the head of the medical center in prison of difficulties I have in breathing and that I cannot breath normally and am unable to tolerate this anymore. I told him, 'If you want me to die, say it, and say it frankly. I need antibiotics and a respiratory machine to help me breath. I need surgery. Either provide me with medicine and some medical treatment here or allow me to get it from outside the prison.' And their response is only silence. Not even aspirin or penicillin is available. As of now, many of the prisoners in Rajaei Shahr prison are suffering from influenza but no medicine is available to treat them. This is our condition in prison.“

Reza Sharifi Bookani, along with Hamed Rouhinejad, Mansour Osanlou, Ahmad Zeidabadi, Behrouz Javid Tehrani, Ali Saremi, Abolfazi Abedini, Kouhyar Goudarzi, and many other political prisoners are all suffering from severe and agonizing morbidities for which the Islamic regime is intentionally withholding treatment as a form of torture.

The International Committee Against Execution asks all concerned individuals to contact the UN, the European Parliament, and national governments and demand that international pressure be exerted with the goal of pressuring the Islamic Republic to release all political prisoners and allow an international delegation to visit and assess the conditions in Iran’s prisons, specifically Rajaei Shahr prison.

Friday, December 24, 2010

The International Committee Against Execution would like to draw your attention to the condition of Reza Sharifi, a political prisoner in Iran. Reza has been sentenced to death by the Islamic Republic of Iran. Despite his health condition - severe respiratory problems - not only is he being deprived of basic medical treatment, but he is also being detained under inhumane conditions in Rajaei Shahr prison.

The following is what Reza Sharifi Bookani said about his condition, communicated from prison on December 22, 2010:

“Today, Wednesday, I checked in with the head of the medical center in prison and informed him of difficulties I have in breathing and that I cannot breath normally and am unable to tolerate this anymore. I told him, 'If you want me to die, say it, and say it frankly. I need antibiotics and a respiratory machine to help me breath. I need surgery. Either provide me with medicine and some medical treatment here or allow me to get it from outside the prison.' And their response is only silence. Not even aspirin or penicillin is available. As of now, many of the prisoners in Rajaei Shahr prison are suffering from influenza but no medicine is available to treat them. This is our condition in prison. “

Reza has respiratory disease, and the prison guards, instead of providing him with medical treatments, have imprisoned him along with five other prisoners who are also sentenced to death or life in prison, including Ali Saremi, Khaled Hardani and Saeed Masoori. They have been in prison for many years and were recently left in the prison’s hallways for days. After these prisoners threatened the guards that they would go on hunger strike, they were transferred to two rooms that are in fact solitary confinement cells but now house six prisoners.

Reza’s condition is an indication of the condition of many others whose lives are in grave danger in the prisons of the Islamic Republic of Iran -- and their numbers are increasing on a daily basis. The world must stand in defense of Iran’s political prisoners and fight against the criminals who are now ruling Iran.

The International Committee Against Execution asks all of you who oppose the death penalty, are against torture and execution, are defenders of freedom of expression and opinion, as well as all of the human rights organizations around the world, to defend Iran’s political prisoners, to help end the death penalty and torture, and in particular to ask for the immediate release of Reza Sharifi Bookani, Saeed Masoori and Ali Saremi. Please spread the news about their condition, and put pressure on international organizations to press the Islamic Republic to release all of the political prisoners and allow an international delegation to visit Iran’s prisons, specifically Rajaei Shahr prison.

The Islamic Republic has informed Habibollah Latifi’s lawyer that his execution sentence will be served on Sunday December 26. Habibollah too has been informed and moved to solitary confinement.

Agents of the Islamic Republic arrested Habibollah on October 23, 2007, and charged him with “moharebeh” and “apostasy,” and, in a hearing that lasted only a few minutes, sentenced him to death. Habibollah is 29 years old, and in the past three years has been under tremendous physical and psychological pressure, as well as all kinds of torture.

The Islamic Republic is a killing apparatus, and it now wants to take Habibollah to the gallows.

The International Committee against Execution, in these last hours left until Habibollah’s execution, calls on everyone to protest this sentence. We ask the Iranian people, and especially people of Sanandaj, to protest in every way possible to prevent Habibollah’s execution. We call on people across the world to protest against this savagery of the Islamic Republic: spread the news, and wherever possible, demonstrate in protest on Saturday, December 25th, and ask the governments to put pressure on the Islamic regime and stop this execution.

International Committee against Execution
International Committee Against Stoning
Spokesperson: Mina Ahadi minaahadi@aol.com
0049-177-569-2413

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

* Violations of children’s and women’s rights
* Decriminalisation of domestic violence and marital rape
* Breach of the Human Rights Act and public policy

Dear friend

These are just a few examples of what is wrong with Sharia courts in Britain and elsewhere.

As you know, One Law for All is the only organisation focusing solely on challenging these medieval laws from a human rights perspective. Our campaign provides the only real alternative for decent people everywhere to stand up and be counted. And whilst a major focus of our work is to insist on equal rights, our campaign is fundamentally about the hope and demand for a society - and world - worthy of people in the 21st century.

Since our establishment in December 2008 and with your support, we have published a number of reports, been up and down the country speaking to the public on the need to stand up to Sharia and religious laws, held seminars, rallies and conferences, joined various debates, organised a free helpline, raised awareness via the arts, and advocated on behalf of those in need of assistance…

As one of our supporters has said, “it is this type of dedicated work that changes attitudes and lives.”

Given the importance of our work, we find it hard to believe how regularly requests for funding are rejected outright by foundations for being “too controversial.” More recently, funding has been refused for our bringing an amendment to the Arbitration Act, which can help to prohibit religious courts in family and civil matters as was done successfully in Ontario, Canada, outreach to MPs and Peers and for conferences and seminars, amongst other activities.

We must, therefore, continue to rely on you to help us get the job done. And I’m sure you will agree that it is a job worth doing and seeing through.

Whilst wishing you a wonderful holiday and New Year, we ask for your ongoing support in determining a different and brighter future.

Any donation, whatever you can give, will truly help.

Every penny counts.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Warmest wishes

Maryam

Maryam Namazie
Spokesperson

NOTES:

1. To donate to the crucial work of One Law for All, please either send a cheque made payable to One Law for All to BM Box 2387, London WC1N 3XX, UK or pay via Paypal.

We need regular support that we can rely on and are asking for supporters to commit to giving at least £5-10 a month via direct debit. You can find out more about how to join the 100 Club here.

4. Our next event is an evening seminar on 26 January entitled Enemies not Allies. The seminar will expose far-right and racist organisations hijacking the issue of Sharia law to promote their racist and anti-immigrant policies and the European left’s appeasement of Islamism at the expense of people’s rights and lives. Confirmed speakers at the event are: John Adams (Emeritus Professor at the University of Hertfordshire), Adam Barnett (One Law for All), Rahila Gupta (Women’s Rights Campaigner), Marieme Helie Lucas (Secularism is a Women’s Issue), Douglas Murray (Centre for Social Cohesion), Maryam Namazie (One Law for All), Shiraz Maher (International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation) and Talal Rajib (Quilliam Foundation). A report on the issue will also be published on the day. For more information and to register, click here.

5. The One Law for All Campaign was launched on 10 December 2008, International Human Rights Day, to call on the UK Government to recognise that Sharia and religious courts are arbitrary and discriminatory against women and children in particular and that citizenship and human rights are non-negotiable. To join the campaign, sign our petition here.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Press TV, an English-language television station sponsored by the Islamic Republic of Iran, broadcast a show about Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani on December 10, 2010. This broadcast is a document that, for any fair and decent human being, and any organization or institution that respects the human right and dignity,serves as the basis for a clear condemnation of the Islamic Republic of Iran. It is a document that demonstrates how morally bankrupt and desperate this regime’s propagandas have become as it attempts to defend its crimes in front of the rest of the world.

It was a show against a woman who is in prison and who was supposed to be stoned to death – a stoning execution that was stopped by international outrage and support – and who still is facing death by hanging execution. She is a woman who is deprived of any contact or communication with the world outside of prison, whose son and attorney are being held in prison, who does not have any support close at hand, and who, under these circumstances has been forced to appear in front of television cameras to make self-incriminating false confessions. Who can possibly watch this show and not see the Islamic Republic regime’s mocking and duplicitous intent, not feel disgusted and angry?

Judicial experts, the Department of Intelligence, and regime diplomats, along with the managers and producers of Press TV, have worked for months on this project. They have worked to “prove” that Sakineh is an accomplice to a murder, a prostitute who cheated on her husband; to introduce Mina Ahadi and her late husband as traitors and terrorists; to discredit Sakineh’s attorneys and question the validity of their arguments – all in an attempt to buy prestige and justify their own disgraced and deeply discredited judicial system. In fact, with this program, the Islamic Republic of Iran has bluntly confessed to its fabrication of files against defenseless prisoners, on which basis it executes and stones them. It showed how it denies basic rights for women, and how its repulsive and rotten laws work against them. It displayed its inhumane treatment of prisoners. This document was an indictment against this regime.

There was another 90-minute program that was broadcast in the Islamic Republic's Persian-language television the night before it was broadcast on Press TV – another desperate effort by the regime.

There are several important aspects of Press TV show:

1 – The show was a confession to a horrifying crime committed by the regime in 1980s. The Islamic Republic admitted that it executed Esmail Yegane-doost, Mina Ahadi’s husband. During those years, the Islamic Republic not only arrested Esmail, but also arrested hundreds of thousands of its opponents. Tens of thousands of them were tortured in medieval fashion or “tried” in minute courts.(1) From pregnant women to teenagers of ages 14 or 15, they were executed by the death squads, which even had the audacity to ask the [bereaved] families for the money the government spent on the bullets that killed their loved ones. They had neither lawyers nor did they commit a crime. The Islamic Republic charged them as terrorists and enemies of God and handed them to the death squads. As a result, Mina Ahadi and hundreds of thousands of others fled the country or took refuge in free zones in Kurdistan to continue their fight against this regime.

2 – The Islamic government has admitted that Sakineh does not have a lawyer. One of her lawyers fled the country and her other lawyer is now in prison. And while she is denied any contact with the outside world, her only great supporter, her son, is now in prison too. It demonstrated how the regime stole her file to manipulate and fabricate it to their liking, and under such circumstances forced her to confess against her will. This show tries to portray Sakineh as a cheater, a prostitute, and an accomplice to the murder of her husband, without allowing her to have any legal defense. Her son Sajjad, her lawyer Houtan Kian, and the two German reporters from das Bild newspaper also lack a lawyer to legally represent or defend them.

3 – The re-creation of the murder scene is so lame it would make an even a 10-year-old laugh. [In the show], a man named Issa Taheri calls Sakineh at home and says that he wants to come by today to kill her husband. He explains the whole murder plan over the phone and then, with Sakineh’s help, the plan is executed. The show makes no reference to the fate of the main killer, Issa Taheri.(2)

4 – As part of recreating the murder scene, Sajjad [Sakineh’s son] is forced to play the role of his deceased father; [thus, in recreating the scene, his own mother] is made to inject her son with anesthetics which, according to [the lines Sakineh is forced to mouth], is what Issa Taheri provided her. Only the regime’s criminals are capable of devising a scene so inhumane and disgusting. These scenes have been developed and produced to appeal to a European audience. We can only imagine that what this government is doing with other prisoners!

5 – The following are what constitute crimes according to the Islamic judicial system:

Sakineh’s crime: Being a woman, having an extramarital affair or relationship with another man and betraying her husband, which, in and of itself is considered prostitution, for which she was sentenced to 99 lashes and ten years in prison and then sentenced to the most heinous torture: death by stoning and being buried alive. Later, due to global pressures, when the regime could not carry out the stoning sentence [for the non-crime of adultery], they decided to steal her file from her lawyer’s office in order to fabricate evidence so they could press charges against her as an accomplice to her husband’s murder, [thus opening the door to] sentencing her to death by hanging. Their act constitutes clear evidence on how defenseless women are [before the judiciary], and how retrogressive and anti-human the rule of law is [under the Islamic Republic].

Sajjad’s crime: Contacting and communicating with Mina Ahadi, getting a lawyer to help his mother, and trying to save his mother from being stoned to death or executed by hanging.

Houtan’s crime: Making Sakineh’s file available to the media to save her from being stoned to death. His crime has made it very difficult for Islamic Republic to alter Sakineh’s file any further.

The visages of both Sajjad and Houtan convey evidence that both have been subjected to extreme mental pressure and physical torture in prison.

The two German journalists’ crimes: As tourists, traveling to Iran and talking with Sajjad and Houtan to help free Sakineh. Some officials from the regime accused them of spying but were forced to redact. Since their “crime” is contacting Mina Ahadi, Sajjad and Houtan, these two reporters are no longer allowed to contact anybody, not even their family members. They have been denied visitation rights and, for having committed their “crime,” they have been forced to make false televised confessions, have been humiliated, and have been held in prison without any official charges brought against them.

6 – Finally, this show is a confession of the fact that Press TV is not independent media but an advertising agency and mouthpiece for the regime’s propaganda, specifically its judiciary system and its intelligence service. Press TV is partner in crime with all of these agencies and is complicit in all of the crimes committed by them. This state sponsored television station’s reporters are in fact interrogators for the [judiciary] system, much like all of the Islamic Republic’s other television channels.

Considering the aforementioned facts:

1 – The International Committees Against Stoning and Execution strongly condemn this program and encourages everyone to condemn it.

2 – The Press TV show was intended to work against Sakineh, Sajjad, Sakineh’s lawyer, Mina Ahadi, the Campaign to Save Sakineh, and the media that has covered this campaign. However, not only did this show fail to achieve its goal, but it revealed the true inhumane face of the Islamic Republic of Iran to people around the globe, in even greater detail than before. The Islamic Republic of Iran did not accomplish anything [to its benefit] by this show irrespective of all of the efforts it made.

3 – The Press TV show provides a clear indication of the complete innocence of Sajjad, Houtan, and the two German journalists, and the baseless case against Sakineh. Even by relying on the evidence presented in this show, and all the allegations against them, all five of them are innocent and must be released immediately and unconditionally.

4 – According to this program, those who killed Esmail Yeganeh-Doost and thousands of other political prisoners are the same ones responsible for Sakineh’s imprisonment, flogging, and the nightmare of death by stoning. They are also responsible for the imprisonment and torture of Sajjad and Houtan, and for the abuse and imprisonment of the two German journalists. These killers must be tried and held accountable.

5 – Once again, this show reveals the inhumane nature of the Islamic Republic’s judicial system to everyone. The Islamic Republic, over its 31-year-long rule, and based on such a system, has imprisoned and/or executed tens of thousands of people, and brutally tortured hundreds of thousands others. It is based on this system that a large number of opposition activists, labor and student activists, women's rights advocates, lawyers, and believers of different religions, are put in jail, tortured, and deprived of any rights. The Press TV program is an absolute proof of the necessity of overthrowing the Islamic Republic as a terrorist and criminal government.

The International Committees against Stoning and Execution and the Campaign to Save Sakineh will continue the fight with strength and full force. The Press TV television show is a document against the scandalous regime in Iran which will be used, ever so widely, to strengthen our efforts to save Sakineh and all other detainees, and to abolish the brutal penalties of flogging, stoning to death, and executions. We call on the people of the world to join in solidarity with the Iranian people in their struggle against this medieval regime.

International Committee against Executions
International Committee against Stoning
Spokesperson: Mina Ahadi minaahadi@aol.com 0049-177-569-2413

(1) “Minute courts” refer to perfunctory judiciary proceedings that are meant to serve as a “trial,” but in fact make a mockery of a legitimate court hearing, most obviously evidence by the fact that the proceedings last no more than a minute or two.

(2) Issa Taheri, who was convicted for the murder of Sakineh’s husband, is living free because Sakineh’s children forgave him for the crime of murdering their father.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

From the statement by WPI’s organisation in Sweden on the suicide bomb attack in Stockholm on Saturday 11 December:

A video message sent earlier to Sweden’s news agency and Secret Police (Säpo) by the suicide bomber, mentions “Sweden’s silence” over the cartoons [of Prophet Mohammed] by [artist] Lars Vilks, as well as the presence of Swedish soldiers in Afghanistan. It says the time has now come for your children, daughters and sisters to die.

There is no doubt that this is another example of Islamic terrorist acts in Europe, brutally targeting defenceless citizens. We categorically condemn such terrorist crimes. We once again stress the unconditional freedom of expression and defend Lars Vilks’ right of free expression. To stand up to this terrorism we must defend the unconditional freedom of expression and the rights of women and children in communities and families labelled as Muslim. We must defend the struggle of people to smash the reactionary Islamic movement in the Middle East and support the fight for secularism in Sweden and around the world. The hands of religion and terrorism must be kept off people’s lives!

In the wake of this terrorist attack, racist forces will no doubt try to target people labelled as Muslim, and will advocate further restrictions in rights of refugees. We strongly condemn such racist ploys. Islamic terrorism and racism feed off each other. We must stand up to both with the banner of humanity.

Friday, December 10, 2010

Conference on Apostasy, Sharia Law and Human Rights
10am, Saturday 11 December 2010
Conway Hall, London

To mark International Human Rights Day, a coalition of secular and humanist activist groups are co-sponsoring an all day conference on Apostasy, Sharia Law and Human Rights at Conway Hall. The conference will highlight urgent cases including Pakistani Asia Bibi who has received a death sentence for blasphemy, Palestinian Waleed Al-Husseini who has been arrested for criticising Islam and campaigners in Iran charged with ‘enmity against God’.

Panel discussions include International Apostasy and Religion, Ex-Muslims in Britain and Europe and Multiculturalism and Multifaithism versus Universal Human Rights. There will also be a play Masculine Laws by Ghazi Rabihavi and a comedy act by Nick Doody.

Confirmed speakers include:
John Adams, Emeritus Professor at the University of Hertfordshire
Mina Ahadi, Spokesperson of the International Committee against Stoning and Council of Ex-Muslims of Germany
Roy Brown, International Representative of International Humanist and Ethical Union
Goranka Gudelj, Outreach Coordinator of One Law for All
Rumy Hassan, Senior Lecturer at the Science Policy Research Unit of the University of Sussex and Author of Multiculturalism: Some Inconvenient Truths
Marieme Helie Lucas, Algerian Sociologist and Founder of Women Living Under Muslims Laws and Secularism is a Women’s Issue
Maryam Namazie, Spokesperson of One Law for All, Iran Solidarity and the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain
Hassan Radwan, Teacher at an Islamia school for 15 years and presently Management Committee Member of the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain
Gita Sahgal, Women’s Rights Campaigner; former head of Amnesty International’s Gender Unit
Hamed Abdol Samad, German-Egyptian Political Scientist and Author of Farewell to Heaven and The Collapse of the Islamic World
Terry Sanderson, President of the National Secular Society
Muriel Seltman, Campaigner of One Law for All
Alom Shaha, Science Teacher, Writer and Film Maker
Joan Smith, Writer, Columnist and Women’s Rights Campaigner
Bahram Soroush, Human Rights Campaigner
Peter Tatchell, Human Rights Campaigner
Anne Marie Waters, Spokesperson of One Law for All

Tickets are £10 for individuals; £25 for organisations and statutory bodies. To book a place at the conference, please complete the booking form found here.

The event will be dedicated to the Iran stoning case of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani.

Sakineh, Sajjad, Houtan and the two German journalists must be immediately and unconditionally released

The Islamic Republic of Iran has announced that it will again broadcast ‘interviews’ with Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani and her son, Sajjad Ghaderzadeh, via its English language station, Press TV, today, on 10 December, International Human Rights Day. Press TV wants to supposedly broadcast Sakineh and Sajjad’s confessions under torture. Press TV hopes to respond to the wave of protests of millions of people worldwide against the Islamic regime by playing the role of interrogator.

The false news of the release of Sakineh and Sajjad was quickly broadcast worldwide on 9 December and brought with it a wave of international solidarity and euphoria. Clearly, people everywhere – the millions who protested and came to the fore - are anxiously awaiting the moment of their release and that of the two German Journalists and Sakineh’s lawyer.

By torturing its captives and dragging them on to such televised charades, the regime strives to reduce its crimes and diminish the pressure against it. However, this case has so highlighted the criminal character of this regime and its judicial system that any move by the regime and its mouthpieces only ends in exposing it even further. Today the televised charades that have taken place countless times since the establishment of the regime against political prisoners is taking place against Sakineh and Sajjad. It must be unequivocally condemned.

The International Committees against Stoning and Execution will resolutely continue the campaign to free Sakineh, Sajjad, Houtan and the two German journalists and call on people everywhere to continue their efforts. The inhuman punishments of stoning and execution must end; a regime that has been founded on such heinous crimes must be overthrown. This is the demand of the people of Iran and millions of humanitarian people across the globe.

International Committee against Stoning
International Committee against Execution

On 8 December 2010 a delegation from the International Committees against Stoning and Execution met with European parliament and commission officials to empower an independent board of jurists to examine the court documents pertaining to the Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani case and interview Ms Ashtiani, her son, lawyer and others.

The next day, Mina Ahadi spoke at a GUE/NGL day-long conference entitled “Women's rights in Europe and the World: The strategies needed to move the women' rights agenda forward” in the European Parliament on the Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani case and the situation of women in Iran.

The ICAS and ICAE will continue to do all it can to secure the release of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, her son, Lawyer and the two journalists.

International Committee against Stoning
International Committee against Execution

On 8 December 2010, the International Committee against Stoning received reports of the impending releases of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani and Sajjad Ghaderzadeh.

On 9 December photographs of Sakineh and her son Sajjad were released by Press TV (one of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s media outlets) and was picked up by a number of international agencies. These have all made it seem as if they have been released.

The report of their release, however, has not been confirmed by the Islamic Republic of Iran.

It is important to note that there has been conflicting information on this issue in the Islamic Republic of Iran’s news agencies.

Thursday, December 09, 2010

On 8 December 2010, a delegation consisting of Mina Ahadi (International Committee against Stoning), Maryam Namazie (Iran Solidarity), Bruno Malattia (Italian pro bono lawyer who had taken on Sakineh’s case) and Taher Djafarzadeh (Neda Committee Italy) had meetings with the European Parliament President's chief diplomatic advisor, Alexandre Stutzmann and the human rights advisor in the President’s cabinet, Mr Levente. They had a second meeting with Alexandra Knapton, member of the cabinet of the European Commission’s Vice President and responsible for human rights. They requested at these meetings that an independent delegation of jurists be send to Iran to investigate Sakineh Ashtiani’s case and handed all documents relating to Ms Ashtiani’s case.

On 9 December 2010, Mina Ahadi addressed a meeting in the European Parliament on the Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani case and the situation of women in Iran.

Saturday, December 04, 2010

Maryam Namazie will be speaking at the 4 December student conference of the Lord Justice Lawa Treasurer of the Inner Temple on The Role of Religion in the Law. Panellists are: Professor Mark Hill QC – expert in ecclesiastical law, Maryam Namazie – Rights activist, commentator and broadcaster, and spokesperson of One Law for All, and Ahmad Thomson – Head of Wynne Chambers specialising in Sharia Law and Co-founder of the Association of Muslim Lawyers.

The International Federation of Iranian Refugees calls upon the Greek Ministry of the Interior to immediately release Mohammad Ashrafi and other detained asylum seekers.

Mohammad Ashrafi, a renowned labour activist and a member of the Committee to Establish Free Labour Organizations, has been detained by Greek police for over 3 months, along with a number of other asylum seekers.

The Islamic Republic's security apparatus and the Information Ministry arrested Mohammad Ashrafi and a number of other labour activists in Laleh Park on May 1st, 2009. He was then sentenced to a year of suspended imprisonment.

On February 9, 2010 the security forces raided his home, arrested and detained him for a while.On June 10, 2010 , the 3 rd branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Court summoned Mohammad Ashrafi. They demanded he present himself at this court on Tuesday, June 22.

By then, Mohammad Ashrafi was well aware of the intimidation and bogus charges awaiting him, with which the judiciary apparatus had planned to silence him. In order to avoid the heavy punishments that the judiciary apparatus had planned to use to retaliate against him and other labour activists, he decided to leave the country and find a safe haven to continue his activities. He left Iran, but was arrested by the Greek border police. He has been detained for over 3 month in one of the most notorious and irregular Greek detention centres!

The Greek government is well aware of inhumane practices of the Islamic regime against its opponents. The powerful sit-in of the Iranian asylum seekers in the centre of Athens and their relentless disclosures during the action revealed the despicable covert intelligence relations and diplomacy between the Greek government and the Islamic Republic.

The International Federation of Iranian Refugees supports Mohammad Ashrafi’s fundamental right to security and asylum and demands the immediate release of this labour activist from detention by the Greek police. Asylum seekers are not criminals and should not be detained in detention camps for seeking refuge.

The Federation calls upon all human and refugee rights advocacy organizations to pressure the Greek government for its inhumane practices against asylum seekers and to immediate release Mohammad Ashrafi and other detained asylum seekers from Greek prisons.

Friday, December 03, 2010

Call for action on Saturday December 4 against the execution and stoning regime, in Iran and abroad

ICAE calls upon people in Iran to widely participate in Shahla Jehad’s memorial. And while staying in solidarity with Shahla’s family, express your despise towards the barbaric act of execution.

ICAE calls upon all people and organizations around the world who are against execution to gather in front of the embassies of Islamic Republic of Iran and city centers to strongly condemn IRI’s barbaric act of execution and to demand an end to it.
Go here for details and locations which will be added shortly.

Wednesday, December 01, 2010

They killed Shahla this morning Wednesday Dec.1 in Evin. Our hearts go for Shahla’s family and friends. Our condolences to all of you all across the world who have spent hours and days working to stop the Islamic regime of committing yet another crime.

Shahla was murdered for the crime of being a woman at the mercy of the Islamic regime at a time that they needed to murder a woman, at a time that they specially needed to murder a woman with a high profile. She otherwise had stated on the record that she had confessed under threat of a relative’s chilled being raped. She was innocent according to her case’s first examiner who was removed from the case for his assessment. She was innocent according to her lawyer who had pointed this out through filing the controversies and legal discrepancies. But none of these mattered for a “judiciary” system based on constitutional savagery and barbarism at the service of a political entity which is preserved through terror and atmosphere of fear of social proportions.

Shahla was murdered for the same reason as Delara and Atefeh and thousands other women were murdered. We will carry their memories and their stories with us to the day we together burn all gallows, and bring down the regime of terror, stoning and execution.

Our sadness gives way to rage, our grief to hatred and resolution. We promise that this gang of murderous criminals pay for killing Shahla, and each and every atrocity committed against our people. We promise that every battle to save another victim of these savages will brings our ranks closer and the glorious day of “Islamic Republic is no more” nearer.They killed Shahla this morning Wednesday December 1, 2010, in Evin. Our hearts go out to Shahla’s family and friends. Our condolences to all of you all across the world who have spent hours and days working to stop the Islamic regime from committing yet another crime.